From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

The term "Capitalist realism" has several meanings or uses. It has been used, particularly in Germany, to describe commodity-based art, from Pop Art in the 1950s and 1960s to the commodity art of the 1980s and 1990s. Alternatively, it has been used to describe the ideological-aesthetic aspect of contemporary corporate capitalism in the West. When used in this way, it is a play on the term "Socialist realism".